


Wide As the Sky

by Persiflager



Category: God's Own Country (2017)
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-24
Updated: 2017-09-24
Packaged: 2019-01-05 01:45:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12180492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Persiflager/pseuds/Persiflager
Summary: Gheorghe stays and they make a life (and cheese).





	Wide As the Sky

Gheorghe stays.

He moves into John’s bedroom and shares his narrow single bed. It’s a tight squeeze but neither of them minds, and they both sleep like the dead after working their backsides off each day. They have sex every night before they go to sleep, quiet as they can manage, and afterwards Gheorghe holds John close like he’s a lamb that needs the warmth. It might be true, at that; John thinks that he might die if he didn’t have it, after being cold for so long.

John’s nan seems to approve of Gheorghe staying, by the way she irons his things along with John’s, but she resents his intrusions into the kitchen. There’s a silent, bitter war over the sheep’s cheese in the fridge that lasts for weeks until John and Gheorghe come back from their first farmer’s market with an empty basket and a bundle of bank notes.

“Right,” says John’s nan when she sees it. “We’ll be needing a bigger fridge then.” 

They go out. There’s an Indian restaurant in the next village over and John takes Gheorghe there to celebrate. He lets Gheorghe order for both of them and the food’s good - spicy, but good. They have a couple of beers and the waitress puts a candle on the table and John realises, belatedly, that they’re on a date. He’s never been on a date before. Gheorghe’s smiling, his eyes bright in the candlelight, and John decides that dates are alright.

John’s dad doesn’t get any better but he doesn’t get any worse, so that’s something. John helps him get washed and that but his nan does most of the looking after. Gheorghe mostly stays out of the way but one day John comes in late to find Gheorghe and his dad talking, or as near to talking as you can get when his dad struggles to get each word out. He leaves them to it but the next day he can’t resist asking his dad what that was about.

“Good lad,” his dad says, his face contorted with effort. “Ideas.”

John has ideas of his own. He talks them over with Gheorghe while they’re out in the fields and then with his dad and his nan in the evening, sitting at the table with pen and paper trying to make the numbers work. He finds himself making lists:

1) Fridge for cheese.  
2) Back fence at top acre.  
3) Call bank re: loan.  
4) Check date of next market  
5) Speak to supermarket distributor at next auction.

For the past year he hasn’t thought further ahead than the job at hand, not since he realised that his life was going to be nothing but hard graft during the day and trying to forget about it at night. Now his future is wide open, wide as the sky, and he has more ideas than will fit in his head.

John thinks some more and adds another idea to the list:

6) Get wed.

Which is of course when Gheorghe leans over his shoulder, because he’s a nosy fucker.

“Who are you marrying?”

John’s face heats. “It’s just an idea. Don’t have to be a big deal or nowt. Just want to make sure you can stay, if we leave the EU like.” 

Gheorghe hums in approval and rests his chin on John’s shoulder. He smells of cheese. “Very romantic.”

“Fuck off,” says John as he leans his head back against Gheorghe’s chest. He knows that he’s not romantic, that he wouldn’t even have the first clue where to start. He’s not good with words and even if he was he doubts there are words in existence that could describe how he feels about Gheorghe. Gheorghe makes him feel like the first time he birthed a lamb and saw it stand on its four wobbly legs, all new and wet and miraculous.

“No, it’s a good idea.” Gheorghe kisses his ear. “You need to call the vet in the morning.”

John writes that down. “I’m glad you stayed.”

“Yes,” says Gheorghe. “I’m glad too.”


End file.
